Someday I pray, we won’t remember that animals were once harvested like timber or timber mowed down like invasive weeds but respected as the holy givers of sustenance they were intended. My mother, the-gardener-extraordinaire, used to tell me:  “Mother Nature is very forgiving of our best efforts and intentions but she does not tolerate disrespect.”

Factory animal farms are neither respectful, honorable or healthy.  Connect the dots, folks, and get over it! Until then (may I live that long but time is not on my side) I offer some news reports and opinions on the origins of the current ‘canary in the coalmine’ — swine flu and the Smithfield Farms connection.

Tom Philpott opened this can of worms on Grist. See his article here.

Another blog post citing a Biosurveillance timeline of the outbreak.

Mysteries about the swine flu are explored in this article from the Associated Press.

Some insight on CAFO’s for your dining pleasure.

[Even the Dept. of Homeland Security, Open Source Report for August 13, 2007 has something to share]

August 10, 2007 Agence France−Presse — Pig farms to shut down in Romania. Eleven unauthorized pig farms belonging to U.S. company Smithfield in Romania are to be shut down following an outbreak of swine fever, the head of the national sanitary and veterinary authority said Friday, August 10. The agency will also send a veterinary doctor to each of Smithfield’s 25 farms in western Timis county to monitor whether sanitary standards were being respected and to oversee the killing of some 40,000 pigs from the two farms where the outbreak occurred, ANSVSA director Radu Roatis said. Veterinary authorities found this week that 11 Smithfield farms had not been authorised to operate in Romania. Swine fever was detected during the 8 week in two farms in western Timis county belonging to Smithfield. One of them did not have an authorization to operate. Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070810/hl_afp/romaniausfarmhea lth_070810132622;_ylt=Ajp_F5IIjjT5TdT1stampleJOrgF

And finally from the CDC…note that swine flu has been around a long time, according to their report.

Smithfield Farms website page

PS:  I’m NOT against kissing pigs. We raised them on our organic farm and they were intelligent, loving, funny, gentle, bonding animals we treated with respect. I’m uncertain I could raise animals for food sacrifice/slaughter again but I know that humane treatment is possible.

If only all pigs could live the kind of life portrayed above…

Women are now 52% of the population on the planet. Our power base is expanding. And those women are growing stronger, more vocal and more political every day.

This International Women’s Day, I invite you to join my Pulsewire group to acknowledge the most valiant, creative, irrepressible, amazing and productive women from around the world who plant grains and vegetables with one hand and hold the tattered remnants of their families and community together with the other. Please join me at Outrageous Gardeners Worldwide with your stories, or links or suggestions.

Women have always been the backbone of community because we create community through our children, our often unacknowledged but essential wisdom and our tireless seeking after ways to improve life not just for ourselves but for our children. Take time today to consider the women you know and their contribution not just to your life but to others and see how wide a circle of influence they create in the many small, quiet and enduring acts of  power.

“Empowering female farmers worldwide is important to ending world hunger and enhancing the quality of life among rural populations,”  Canadian Federation of Agriculture President, Bob Friesen.

A protest!

From the amazing AVAAZ.org website, comes this invitation to joins tens of thousands of people on Sunday, Feb. 1st as we fast in solidarity with the starving and impoverished citizens of Zimbabwe.

The movement for democracy in Zimbabwe has just raised the stakes: hundreds of activists in Southern Africa, including Desmond Tutu, have begun a rolling hunger strike to press for justice. This regional demonstration of commitment is putting real and growing pressure on leaders to demand a fair settlement in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe has descended to an almost unimaginable state of desperation. Most of Zimbabwe’s 11 million people eat one meal a day—or less. But as pressure rises at home, in the region, and around the world, Mugabe’s grip on power may be slipping.  That’s why this one day global solidarity fast -(from sun up to sun down)- is so important, for the more of us that fast, the stronger the call for justice and democracy.

And now watch Kumi Naidoo’s video appeal – he will deliver our global message of solidarity to African heads of state gathering in Ethiopia on Sunday, 1 February!

Each day in the world nearly 1 billion people go to bed hungry, most of them women and children and the people of Zimbabwe are among the poorest. Please fast with us at Outrageous Gardens this Sunday as we stand with the people of Zimbabwe to eradicate poverty and hunger with every tool we can find.  They are counting on us and for some, this may be their last chance.

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

The blogs will be overflowing today with intensely personal reflections on this historic date of January 20, 2009. And as tickled as I was to watch the former president fly away from Capitol Hill this morning (yes, I’ll admit I was screaming FASTER! FASTER! at the tv) there was something else that was mentioned several times by reporters and commentators that resonated even more profoundly for me.  It had nothing to do really with the color of skin of our new President, or his faith, or the long march to freedom long overdue people of color, or his promises to again live by the rule of law which sounded so delicious to my ears burned by 8 years of the Bush monarchy. No, what kept rolling over and over… …in my mind and heart was this:  that 44 times in 220 years, the office of commander in chief and president of this nation has been handed over miraculously without a coup, without dissent, without mob action, or threat.  Think of that.  How many countries can say that during their entire history, the change of command always took place peacefully and in full view of the populace?

Today, for the first time, the impact of that knowledge hit me in the heart as perhaps the most symbolic representation of the true power of this nation. I know some of us feel the 2000 election was stolen from Al Gore and we have had to deal with four assassinations in this country’s history plus a Civil War. But no incoming President has wrenched the office from the incumbent by killing him off or assembling tanks on the White House lawn and forcing him out at gunpoint.

There is within the framework of this system–however unwieldy, massive, often unresponsive and expensive–a tradition of a peaceful, respectful and orderly change from one administration to another. The torch is passed invisibly through a form of pomp and circumstance that provide us with a comfort so few other countries can imagine let alone experience.  I marveled at my own lack of that awareness before today.  How many Presidential inaugurations have I witnessed personally–without revealing my age? 11. As a young girl, I wept through the recording of the oath administered to Lyndon Johnson in 1963.  A product of the television era, I dutifully felt called to be at most of the others live or on the evening re-broadcasts. And now I’m sitting in front of this computer awestruck by something I have always taken for granted: the PEACEFUL and NON-VIOLENT transfer of power of the highest office of this nation. So THAT is what I celebrate today.

Perhaps I’m more aware of it now because of this service I have chosen: teaching people how to feed themselves under difficult circumstances. So much of what I read from my colleagues in other places revolves around their ability or inability to work in areas of civil unrest or war or famine created by dictatorships or coups or failed political systems.  How can a nation rise to its full potential, let alone survive, when it is constantly at war with itself? How can the wounds of poverty, hunger, epidemics, inadequate sanitation or unequal educational opportunities even become part of the conversation within a nation where all its resources are bled away by groups greedy to be top dog? And while we as a nation certainly have our own bloody ugly laundry to wash, we don’t burn down the laundromat to hide it. That is the powerful process that has allowed us to grow to the strength and dynamism that is a hallmark of this country.

So while so many of us justifiably are whooping and hollering and raising beer steins to toast our nation’s true coming of age with the installation of Barack Obama as President numero 44, I think I’ll sip tea.  Tea instigated the whole commotion that eventually birthed this country. And drinking tea stirs up for me the cherished beliefs and hopes entwined within these traditions that somehow survive to embrace and nurture us. Yes, I’ll make a little pot of Constant Comment and toast our today’s celebratory transition of power as well as all the dreams this president symbolizes for me personally.  So Mr. President, here’s to you, to us and your successful leadership–with a dash of sugar and a slice of lemon.

And tomorrow I’ll crank up the washing machine and go to work with you.

Another World AIDS Day come and gone December 1st. Another opportunity to shine some light on a disease whose origins are as murky as the various strategies for controlling it and ending its legacy of multi-generational suffering. According to an ALTERNET article, twenty-five years after HIV/AIDS was first identified, 33 million people are living with the virus. Most are in sub-Saharan Africa but the virus is spreading fast in Asia and Eastern Europe.

• Most HIV+ people don’t know they’re infected
• Women make up nearly 60 percent of new infections in sub-Saharan Africa
•Anti-retroviral drugs reach only 31 percent of those who need them

While some countries have been successful at containing the virus – including Brazil, Uganda and Cuba – others are experiencing soaring infection levels. Swaziland has the highest level of infection – a quarter of people aged 15 to 49.

The good news is that some of the worst-affected countries – Burkina Faso, Kenya, Haiti and Zimbabwe – have recently reduced their infection rates.

But as infection levels continue to rise, international controversies rage over issues such as drug-pricing and the promotion of condom use.

On a local level, AIDS workers have to grapple with social stigma as well as shortages of medical staff and drugs. [Courtesy of Reuters AlertNet 12.2.08]

One tiny light that keeps sputtering in the wilderness of AIDS treatment and improving health is from a still relatively unknown or under-utilized tree, a tree that could offset medical staff and drug shortages.  Although native to some of the poorest countries on the planet, where most AIDS or HIV infected populations occur, little is known in the “corporate philanthropy” circles about this completely underwhelming tree that grows on the poorest soils, requiring little to no nutrient inputs and sparse water yet provides a litany of life supporting products unlike any other plant I’ve encountered. This “miracle” tree as it has been called by many in the field, is the Moringa tree, specifically Moringa oleifera.  Why miracle tree? Because all parts of the tree are edible and useful and those uses can counteract so much suffering.

Moringa flower

I was first introduced to the Moringa tree by an amazing couple we’ll talk more about in a post or two, Hank Bruce and Tomi Folk of Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Hank and Tomi are the founders and primary facilitators for Hunger Grow Away and wrote what many consider a definitive work on lesser known and higher quality nutritional foods for family gardens and small farms called Global Gardening. Among the memorable and highly energized conversations we’ve had over the years, one topic we always come back to is this tree. There are 13 species of Moringa in the world but for Hank and Tomi and for many thousands of us around the world, the Moringa oleifera contains the answer to many issues that tenaciously squeeze the life out of those living in many countries right above and below the Equator and all around the world.

What follows are just a few of its qualities. And while the US medical-scientific community is not yet on board with some of these uses, I suggest readers scroll all the way to the bottom for a look at all the scientific papers that are coming forth from all around the world verifying these and many other attributes of this scraggly, unassuming, yet powerfully significant tree.

Are you ready?

• Experts agree Moringa leaf powder could virtually wipe out malnutrition. The countries with the highest rates of malnutrition are almost all the same countries where Moringa grows best-exactly where it is needed the most.
• Moringa leaves, gram for gram, contain 7 times the amount of Vitamin C in oranges, 4 times the Vitamin A in carrots, 4 times the calcium in milk, 3 times the potassium in bananas, 2 times the protein in yoghurt, and an entire multivitamin complex of Vitamin A through Zinc, all the essential ammino acids plus arginine and histidine, two essential amino acids for infants.
• Other attributes of the moringa tree include (take a deep breath): cooking oil, high protein animal fodder, disease prevention, ointment, fertilizer, insecticide, herbicide, lubricant, dye, plant growth enhancers, food condiment, honey production and honey clarifier, cosmetic grade oil, wind barrier and erosion control, biogas production.
• The list of illnesses thus far that have been proven to benefit from Moringa include: anemia, anxiety, asthma, blackheads, blood impurities, blood pressure, bronchitis, cholera, colitis, conjunctivitis, diabetes, diarrhea, dysentery, eye and ear infections, fever, gonorrhea, intestinal worms, jaundice, malaria, inflammation of joints, respiratory disorders, scurvy, skin infections, stomach ulcers, tuberculosis, tumors. And this is the short list.
• Moringa seeds contain a cationic polyelectrolyte that has proved efficient in water treatment as a substitute for aluminum sulphate and other flocculents.
  
• And, moringa seeds are being used in the prevention and treatment of AIDS with good results. A study from the 1990’s indicated that there was a connection between forms of malnutrition and the likelihood of contracting AIDS. More recently, information is surfacing about the use of the seeds in directly improving the health of AIDS and HIV infected persons.

So why isn’t the Gates Foundation or the Center for Disease Control talking about this or doing more studies to refine how Moringa could be used? I don’t know exactly.  I’m forwarding this blog post to several organizations reputed to deal expressly with finding a cure for AIDS or treating AIDS.  Maybe using something as simple and plain ugly as a native tree seed to help end one of the planets most vile pan-demics (outside of hunger) is just not, well, very flashy.  Maybe it’s because it wouldn’t cost much to underwrite the growing of these amazing tree shrubs for clinics, schools, orphanages or as plantations of commercial enterprises.  Maybe it’s because these other folks didn’t know about it first. But now you will.

By far the most inspiring introduction to Moringa is through the Trees for Life website, a forum for all types of scientific trials, papers, studies that have been done or need to be done. It’s public access and it’s free.

On the Moringa News network you can join a free forum of many years duration that covers everything about Moringa that you can possibly want to know with contacts to some of the most notable names in humanitarian research and appropriate technology and development. Like my friends, Hank and Tomi, most of the folks on the network are doers and sharers.  Some are entrepeneurs and those in developing areas are encouraged to look at the economic benefits of growing Moringa. Many are humanitarian workers seeking practical solutions to problems they face. A few are marketing products already developed with Moringa leaf powder or oil. (I use both and I highly recommend the powder as a nutritional supplement.)

Yet when I look at the leaves of Moringa oleifera in photos or in front of me I see something else. I see answers, solutions to so many issues. And the cost is practically nothing. No, the Moringa isn’t very flashy or romantic or complicated. For many who have suffered for years from malnutrition, they did not know that this tree which was growing in their backyards or along a path was even edible.  That information had been lost to them until someone from the outside informed them of its many benefits and taught them how to use it.  Sadly, it was right under their noses all along and they did not realize how it could have helped them.

Maybe that’s what keeps big money research companies from looking into Moringa more closely: it’s too common.  It won’t cost alot to grow.  It doesn’t take much care.  It doesn’t require high inputs of organic nutrients or water, in fact, it prefers to live on scarcity. Nearly all parts of the tree can be utilized and it grows very fast.  And the abundance of its benefits is truly miraculous.

My hope for next year on World AIDS Day? That those with all the millions of dollars will put that money into finding simpler solutions from something that is right in plain sight if they’ll look up from the electron microscopes, out the boardroom windows or away from computer-generated models long enough to see that just over there in the distance may be at least part of the solution they’ve dreamed of all along.

[This begins a long but not exhaustive list of articles and research on Moringa. It is to assist you in seeing the many benefits, encourage you to do more research as well as generate conversations between you and any non-profits, humanitarian organizations, foundations, research institutions or clergy with whom you are connected. The Earth has provided us with an amazing plant to assist us in ending so many aspects of suffering--if we are willing.]

Moringa Book produced by Trees For Life International

“THE MORINGA TREE, MORINGA OLEIFERA, IS CALLED MOTHER’S BEST FRIEND.” Amaranth to Zai Holes; Ideas for Growing Food Under Difficult Conditions: Meitzner, Laura and Martin Price, copyright 1996 by Educational Concerns for Hunger Organization, Inc. All rights reserved.

The possible role of Moringa oleifera in HIV/AIDS supportive treatment. Burger DJ, Fuglie L, Herzig JW; International Conference on AIDS. Int Conf AIDS. 2002 Jul 7-12; 14: abstract no. F12423.University, Stellenbosch, South Africa

The challenge of HIV/AIDS: Where does agroforestry fit in? Marcela Villarreal and Christine Holding Anyonge, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; Brent Swallow and Freddie Kwesiga, World Agroforestry Centre

Moringa oleifera: a food plant with multiple medicinal uses: Farooq Anwar, Sajid Latif, Muhammad Ashraf, Anwarul Hassan Gilani. (Various research institutions in Pakistan.)

From the Moringa Network documents list:

Experts on nutritional benefits of Moringa: http://www.tfljournal.org/article.php/20051201124931586

The Moringa tree, a local solution to malnutrition? (pdf 501Kb) Lowell Fuglie

Litterature review on Moringa oleifera (pdf 559 Kb) John A. Parotta

Moringa seed and pumice as alternative natural materials for drinking water treatment (PDF, 2 Mb!!!) Kebreab A. Ghebremichael

Illustrated brochure on water treatment with Moringa (PDF, 117 Kb) Lowell Fuglie et Caroline Olivier

The multipurpose Moringa stenopetala tree in Ethiopia (PDF, 232 Kb) Dr Yalemtsehay Mekonnen

Potential of Moringa as a food supplement for urban Africans (in French, 106 kb) Armelle de Saint Sauveur

The food crisis: Moringa’s Green Superfoods Revolution Armelle de Saint Sauveur et Mélanie Broin

Baby formulas enriched in Moringa leaf powder (PDF 39 Kb) Mélanie Broin

Nutriments provided by 30g of Moringa leaf powder Mélanie Broin

Rural nutrition intervention with indigenous plant foods – a case study of vitamin A deficiency in Malawi (PDF 174 Kb) Suresh Chandra Babu, 2000

The Moringa tree, a local solution to malnutrition? (pdf 501Kb) Lowell Fuglie

Poster “Moringa leaves are good for your children’s health” (PDF 307 Kb) Guy A. Zohoun, N.W. Mahougnon (ACFD Bénin), A. de St Sauveur (PROPAGE).

Moringa oleifera, potentially a new source of oleic acid-type oil for Malaisia (word, 88 Ko) Mohamed, A.S. et al., 2003

Abstracts on the role of Moringa leaf powder against malnutrition (PDF 59 Ko) Niambar VS, Girija V, etc.

Moringa leaf production techniques in family farming systems (in French) (PDF, 441 Kb) Armelle de Saint Sauveur

Suggested cultural practices for Moringa (PDF 196 Ko) M.C. Palada and L.C. Chang

The use of Moringa oleifera as a natural coagulant for water and wastewater treatment (Word, 464 kb) Folkard, G; Sutherland J.

Papers published by Dr Muyibi on water treatment with Moringa oleifera since 2002 (Word, 30kb) Dr. Suleyman Aremu Muyibi

Application of processed Moringa oleifera seeds in drinking water treatment (Power point, 329Kb) Dr. Suleyman Aremu Muyibi

“He who has health has hope; and he who has hope has everything.“- Arabian Proverb

]]> http://outrageousgardens.com/can-moringa-change-the-face-of-aids/feed/ 4 http://outrageousgardens.com/food-is-a-right-not-a-commodity/ http://outrageousgardens.com/food-is-a-right-not-a-commodity/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2008 19:05:17 +0000 Yvonne http://outrageousgardens.com/?p=97 Former President Bill Clinton has it right: “Food is not a commodity like others,” Clinton said addressing a high-level event at the UN marking Oct. 16’s World Food Day. “We should go back to a policy of maximum food self-sufficiency. It is crazy for us to think we can develop countries around the world without increasing their ability to feed themselves.”

That was a gratifying thing to read today in the Organic Consumers Organization “Organic Bytes.” Clinton underscored what this website and many other NGO’s and organizations I’ve learned from have been teaching, preaching and supporting for a long time: “While the international community is focused on turmoil in the global economy, I am extremely concerned that not enough is being done to help those who are suffering most: the poorest of the poor,” Clinton said.

Clinton seems to be catching up with what those on the ground have been saying for many years about what exacerbates the exploding levels of poverty and hunger: policy making and not problem solving by the World Bank, the International Monetary fund and others backed by the US; dropping subsidies to small farmers for fertilizer, improved seeds and other inputs; the refusal to allow more aid in cash to be spent where needed rather than enforcing aid in the form of grains; the expanding of ethanol production from corn, a food crop, and; the failure of the wealthy countries to live up to their promised $22 billion in emergency agricultural aid.

Why do I think Clinton is apparently more aware of these failures and even of his own? (In this same address he said “We all blew it including me as president.”) By being there! Clinton has visited several times over the past 10 years, speaking directly with the people most affected, getting out of a steel and glass tower filled with men in suits and walking along the dirt paths, alleyways and dusty farms of our neighbors in Africa, seeing where progress is occurring and what else needs to be done. When we begin to trust the vision of those who WORK and LIVE and RAISE families in a certain area to know what they require, not what we want for them, real change can take place. With Clinton’s influence, I’m hoping that the knowledge and compassion and skill that has been available through the many organizations you will learn about here, will finally be called to the table alongside the community leaders where they have worked. When all those actors blend together, the poor and the hungry will acquire a clear and just voice that rises above the usual din of ineffective policy babble.

President Clinton in Monrovia, Liberia August, 2008 (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images For The Clinton Foundation)

(See also: “Food First Policy Brief No.12: Ten Reasons Why the Rockefeller and the Bill and Melinda Gates’ Foundations’ Alliance for Another Green Revolution Will Not Solve theProblems of Poverty and Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa,” October 2006: Eric Holt-Gimenez, Ph.D., Miguel A. Altieri, Ph.D., and Peter Rosset, Ph.D.)

[Update 11/17/08: And if you want to find all the issues about global food insecurity wrapped up into one blogpost (it's long but well worth the read if you've got a couple of hours) check out "The Road to the Horizon" blog, written by a man who's been there, done that, seen it all, and continues to hope and work for change. Thanks, Peter.]

[UPDATED: 11/28/08 - article by Mark Winne.

"The risk is that the multibillion-dollar system of food banking has become such a pervasive force in the anti-hunger world, and so tied to its donors and its volunteers, that it cannot step back and ask if this is the best way to end hunger, food insecurity and their root cause, poverty." You can catch more of Mark's wisdom from more than 25 years as a crusader and writer and activist at his website: www.markwinne.com]

Dependence is a disease unless you’re a nursing child. It weakens one’s problem-solving abilities and diminishes the uniquely creative instincts in all sentient beings. Look at animals in zoos waiting for the next feeding. Consider humans standing in line for handouts of staple foods–year after year after year. Something goes numb. Apathy, lethargy, hopelessness become the norm. Even play is a distant memory.

This article by a trio of authors compares today’s monolithic amounts of foreign aid acquired and distributed by aid organizations, NGO’s and mega-philanthropies to the historic creation of colonial Empires in many of these same regions of the world–Africa, southeast Asia, the middle East. By creating dependence upon the invading powers, the European colonialists basically emasculated local tribal, national, ethnic political systems and eroded their central purpose in the lives of the locals. Using Afghanistan as an example, the article points out that 80 percent of all the basic services such as education and health care come from outside–from international aid organizations and NGO’s. “The result is a shell of a government, unable to provide basic service or assert its authority.” How can a people move beyond dependence and return its trust to its political system when the majority of people are dependent upon their basic needs for persons or groups outside their boundaries?

I appreciated seeing this argument in something as accessible as Utne Reader and encourage anyone interested in questioning the results of continuing to dump enormous amounts of aid to struggling populations. I agree with the authors that initial inputs of emergency relief, water and medicines is something all nations of the world might agree are part of being neighbors on this planet when one group suffers large-scale disasters, emergencies or an influx of refugees for any reason. Aligned with all those forms of aid could also be the creation of a self-sufficient growing system for food, traditional herbal medicines and forage for small animals. In this way, the immediate emergency is met while allowing the groups in question to maintain some semblance of autonomy and decision-making.

Who are the most influential and powerful NGO’s according to Foreign Policy magazine?

BRAC

Headquarters: Dhaka, Bangladesh

2007 budget: $480 million

Employees: 110,000

Major operations: micro-credit and poverty alleviation

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Headquarters: Seattle, Wash.

2007 budget: Of the foundation’s $37 billion in assets, more than $2 billion in grants was given last year.

Employees: 540, but growing quickly

Major operations: improving global health, eradicating poverty, improving American education

World Vision

Headquarters: Federal Way, Wash.

2007 revenues: $977 million

Employees: 31,000

Major operations: food aid and emergency assistance

Oxfam International

Headquarters: Oxford, England

2006-07 expenditures: $704 million

Employees: 6,200 field workers

Major operations: poverty alleviation and debt relief

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders

Headquarters: Geneva, Switzerland

2006-07 expenditures: approximately $770 million

Employees: 27,000

Major operations: establishing health care services in poor countries and providing emergency medical care (Excerpted from the July 2008 Foreign Policy web exclusive)

These appear more like businesses than aid organizations, even acting as a major employer in the countries where they work. How could a group or people not become dependent upon them when locals probably obtain salaries they would otherwise not receive working for a local charity or government organization?

“As these groups deepen their presence in weak states,” according to the Utne article, “they often bleed the country of local talent.” I tend to agree strongly with that statement and it’s one of the foundations of why I initiated this website. Individuals and groups, even those we deem poor, hungry, indigent or in other forms of need, have the right to regain and hold onto their self-esteem, their sense of rightness, their decision-making powers however small the scale may be. Being poor and hungry does not equate to being stupid. Those in pain have the answer to that pain. But when the growling of their bellies is louder than the guiding voices in their heads, they begin the slide into dependence and hoplessness.

Any aid organization that does not put self-sufficiency and self-empowerment on an equal track with emergency supplies is probably setting itself up for a dependence-based relationship with the very people it ostensibly came to help.

Outrageous Gardens seeks to identify those groups, individuals or organizations whose primary work is establishing self-sufficiency and community independence. They are not the most flashy, well-financed or even the easiest to locate. They may, however, be the most effective “neighbors” on the planet. And worthy not only of our interest and support but also of imitation.